Elizabeth+Tsuji


 * SUMMARY: Elizabeth Tsuji, age 21, died February 2, 1978 after an abortion performed at Inglewood General Hospital in Inglewood, CA.**

Elizabeth Ryoko Tsuji, a 21-year-old Cal State student, underwent a [|safe and legal] 8-week abortion at a local Planned Parenthood on November 11, 1977. She called the clinic in December to report that she was still not menstruating, but staff assured her that the abortion had been successful.

On February 1, 1978, Elizabeth confirmed that she was indeed still pregnant, five months along. The Planned Parenthood clinic referred her to [|Inglewood General Hospital] for a saline abortion.

That evening, she packed a nightgown and told her family she was going to spend the night at a friend's house. That was the last time they saw her alive.

Elizabeth underwent the abortion on February 2, and died that day. Two autopsies were performed, neither of which could find a definitive cause of the young woman's death.

Abortionist [|Morton Barke] was somehow involved, although documents aren't clear what his role was in her death. Barke also worked at the unsavory [|San Vicente Hospital]. He is known to have been a partner at Inglewood and to have been involved in the deaths of Yvonne Tanner (1984) and Lynette Wallace (1975). His involvement might have been that he served in a supervisory role.

The other women who met their deaths at Inglewood include Kathy Murphy (1973), Cora Lewis (1983), and Belinda Byrd (1987).

Other women who were referred for fatal abortions by Planned Parenthood include @Christi Stile, @Sandra Kaiser, and @Andrea Corey.

As you can see from the graph below, abortion deaths were falling dramatically before legalization. This steep fall had been in place for decades. To argue that legalization lowered abortion mortality simply isn't supported by the data.



Sources: California Death Certificate No. 78-063811; Los Angeles County (CA) Autopsy Report No. 78-1763

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